~End of Volume 1~
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The game was declared over, the virtual world began to collapse, and everyone returned to reality…
Now, let's talk about what happened afterward... though, in truth, it was just an informal discussion among the game participants after the game ended.
It was only at this moment that Haruya realized the problem he was facing: there were actually two winners in this game, the superficial victory and the underlying victory.
The reason Haruya said this was because, during his conversation with Sora and Shiro, he fully understood the meaning behind their words.
In fact, Sora and Shiro had no intention of hiding their thoughts.
"This is the first time I've encountered such a situation. Even though I didn't really want to win, I was still shocked by Haruya's plan. Who would have thought of conquering the Divine Beast pieces? It's just super reckless." Losing the game didn't leave Sora feeling particularly bitter. Sitting in his chair, he said this.
The reason was simple, and he was about to explain it to everyone present.
Without a doubt, the race that suffered the most losses in this game was the Werebeasts…
Though it was a bit unfair to Izuna, there was nothing that could be done about it.
"Though I'm not bitter, I'm still a little upset. After all, all the rights we had as representatives have been transferred to Haruya." Sora started.
"But… only the rights… our rights…" Beside him, Shiro, who was stroking Izuna's head, added this statement, making everyone present take the matter seriously.
Immanity; Sora, Shiro, Jibril, and Steph.
Werebeasts; Miko, Izuna, and Ino.
Sirens; Haruya, Plum, Mihama, and Laila.
These three factions were represented by these individuals, and now Sora and Shiro were acting as the spokespersons.
Now that the game was over, Ino, who had just heard Sora and Shiro's explanation, didn't fully understand what their words meant.
"What do you mean?" The elderly Werebeast inquired.
"Shiro has already made it clear enough. It's exactly as it sounds, Haruya has won the rights of our representatives, that's all."
"That's all?" Ino looked at the Shrine Priestess, who pointed her fan at Sora, "Then, what about everything else? Because mere rights can't control everything in a country, right?"
"Good question, Shrine Priestess." Sora snapped his fingers, while Haruya listened quietly.
Thinking carefully, Sora and Shiro's earlier statement had already proven one thing: Haruya had only won the 'rights'.
In other words, he only had the rights, nothing else…
This was the conclusion Haruya had reached, and it was likely part of Sora and Shiro's plan... "Could it be…"
"Haruya, you figured it out? As expected of someone who loves 'alternative methods'... Though, that was quite an interesting move. Before that, since the game is over, let me explain briefly."
Sora turned to look at the corridor behind him, and two people entered the room from the other side.
They were...
Fiel Nirvalen of the Elves, and Chlammy Zell of Immanity.
Fiel appeared calm and composed, but Chlammy seemed a bit uncomfortable.
With so many people watching her, and from different races, she couldn't act like her usual self.
Fiel placed a hand on Chlammyʼs shoulder and gently pushed her forward:
"I am Fiel Nirvalen."
"Sigh… I am Chlammy Zell."
Haruya had some impression of both of them. Chlammy, an Immanity, had been a slave to the Nirvalen family since her grandfather's generation.
A spy for the Elven country 'Elven Gard', she had achieved victory after victory with the support of Elven magic, only to be exposed and defeated by Sora and Shiro.
Her previous goal in participating in the king's election was to preserve Immanityʼs last territory by becoming a puppet state of the Elves.
So why was she here now?
Perhaps it was related to what Haruya had guessed earlier. Sora had them sit in the vacant seats.
The beast-eared girls began serving tea, something the Werebeasts excelled at.
With everyone settled, Sora continued, "In the game that just ended, we all bet our race's pieces, right? At the same time, it was only because we had the rights of representatives that we could bet our race's pieces in the game. So… before the game started, we first lost to Chlammy..."
"What does that mean?" Plum, who was drinking tea, asked this question.
Since Mihama wanted to take some sweets, Laila picked her up, and their actions drew the attention of others, "Mihama, you can't just take things."
"Papa..." Mihama glanced at Haruya.
"Darling is in a meeting. You can bother him later." said Laila.
"Darling?" Mihama intoned, her head slightly tilted.
"Only I can call him that! You can't! I'll get mad!" Chastised the degenerate Siren Queen.
'What kind of childcare is this…'
Sora: "I'm still a bit envious… Ouch! Don't pinch me, Shiro. I'm just expressing my feelings. Anyway, back to the topic."
Turning his attention away from Laila and Mihama, Sora gave Haruya a look of disdain before continuing:
"As I said earlier, only those with the rights of representatives can bet their race's pieces. The cost of losing is handing over everything you have, represented by the 'race pieces', to the winner. But those rights are time-limited, right?"
"Could it be that in the game you deliberately lost to Chlammy, the condition was…" Haruya muttered in realization.
"What do you think?" Sora smiled as he asked Haruya.
Noticing that everyone was looking at him, Haruya began to explain...
Though it wasn't really an explanation, he was just sharing his speculation with everyone present, "Since you weren't afraid of losing at all, what you bet must have been something like 'time-limited representative rights', right?"
"Correct." Sora nodded.
The others didn't quite understand the conversation between Haruya and Sora, but the Shrine Priestess narrowed her eyes.
"What Haruya said about 'time-limited representative rights' is similar to our wager. To be more precise, the rule was 'If we lose to Chlammy in the game, we will transfer all rights, but the Covenant will take effect three days later', which is today."
"How shameless," The Shrine Priestess interjected at this point, "Because this wager was about handing over 'the race pieces owned by the representatives to the winner', only the representatives could use the 'race pieces'. But when today ends, you lose your representative rights, and after the race pieces are handed over to Haruya, they will return to Chlammy, right? Because the 'representative who bet the race pieces' wasn't Chlammy..."
Everyone present suddenly understood.
Sora and Shiro had essentially suffered no losses.
On the contrary, they had gained valuable information, which was…
The Shrine Priestess sighed, her golden fox tail swaying weakly as she continued, "Your wager was reclaimed, and you also learned about our game content and methods, understood the importance of Dhampir magic, and got a grasp of the Sirens' situation. It's like killing three birds with one stone."
That's why the Shrine Priestess had called Sora and Shiro shameless earlier...
Who would have thought? Haruya hadn't expected Sora and Shiro to use such tactics.
Haruya had only used methods that didn't quite align with the role of a gamer to win the game, while Sora and Shiro, as gamers, had been advancing step by step, carefully strategizing their way through this world.
They were opposites, yet there were similarities…
However, Sora also stroked Izuna's head, causing Ino to grit his teeth.
"We're not completely without losses. After all, we're now Haruya's people. The Covenants only exchanged rights."
Haruya looked at Sora, Shiro, Steph, and Jibril.
Now, they were all his people…
It was a rather peculiar feeling.
After their actions this time, it was likely that future games would include a rule like 'no prior Covenant with other individuals'.
But why didn't they let him go back? They could have walked away unscathed…
"There's one more thing… Nii…"
"Ah, I forgot." Sora patted his head, "Haruya, the reason we're not going back is also simple. In the Covenant with Chlammy, there was a clause that said 'when we return victorious, the rights will return to us'. In other words…"
Sora stood up and looked at Haruya, "I'm somewhat impressed by your methods, Haruya, but that doesn't mean we'll lose to you. This time doesn't count, so let's play another game, betting everything we have."
In short, after losing the game and gaining all sorts of information, Sora and Shiro wanted to defeat Haruya to return to Elkia, thereby obtaining all the information they wanted as well as the race pieces of the three countries.
However, their ultimate goal was actually the 'Commonwealth of Elkia', so Sora retracted his earlier statement:
"Let's play a game. Even if you lose, we can still have fun and form a great alliance!"
This, of course, included the Sirens, Werebeasts, and Immanity.
Though the plot had taken some twists and turns, it was somewhat similar to the original storyline, provided Haruya accepted Sora's challenge.
They no longer had any rights, and Haruya hadn't received any justification, but the thought of it was quite intriguing.
To truly face off against Sora and Shiro in a game, to have a direct confrontation.
"How shameless. In that case, aren't we the only ones at a disadvantage?" The Shrine Priestess stood up, clearly dissatisfied.
Indeed, the golden Shrine Priestess was right. The Werebeasts were the ones at the biggest disadvantage…
Not to mention that the game's content had been revealed to many, and even the Werebeasts' race pieces had fallen into someone else's hands, putting them in a completely unfavorable situation.
The Shrine Priestess wasn't usually this rash, she had been quite confident in her initial plan.
On the surface, the game was based on chess, but the real reason was to rely on the Werebeasts' abilities to gain an advantage.
The 'Blood Break' ability was among the top in physical boosts among the sixteen races, but Haruya and the others had avoided direct confrontation.
Even if this game required direct confrontation, Haruya and the others had managed to avoid it.
Of course, from a process perspective, they had succeeded, but…
The result was completely different from what they had imagined.
The process could influence the outcome, but for the participants of this game, the uncertainty of the result was quite significant.
"Conquering the Divine Beasts…" The Shrine Priestess said this.
No one could have imagined that Haruya would make the virtual game's 'Divine Beasts' fall in love…
However… the Shrine Priestess had originally had a backup plan.
It was just that Haruya's actions had shattered all her plans, as all the Divine Beasts had been captivated by Haruya's Queen.
After saying this, the Shrine Priestess turned her gaze to Haruya, "And what will you do with us?"
"Look here, Shrine Priestess, I won't enslave the Werebeasts. The game rules have such provisions."
And it's about making everyone have fun.
"You won't do anything bad to us?"
"National cooperation, sharing resources. Even though I have your race pieces, my only request is 'to live together'."
"What a strange and intriguing thought, symbiosis, huh…" The Shrine Priestess walked up to Haruya and whispered in his ear, "What about the reproduction problem of the Sirens and their allies, the Dhampir?"
"That… is a rather serious issue…" Haruya decided to avoid this topic.
As if waiting for the two to finish, Laila quietly approached Haruya from behind, "Don't get so close to other women in front of me, my 'dear'… or I'll kill you."
"Did I hear that wrong?"
Laila chuckled, "Yeah, you heard wrong. It's just a joke, right, Mihama? Close your eyes later."
"I definitely didn't hear wrong!" retorted Haruya.
Ignoring the two, the Shrine Priestess returned to her seat, "Any other questions?"
At that moment, Izuna, who had been sitting beside Sora and Shiro, let out a small 'growl' from her stomach.
"I'm hungry, desu…"
"Then let's do this." Haruya picked up on Izuna's words, "I know a way to make some delicious dishes. In my hometown, it's called Mapo Cuisine."
"Sounds good, desu..."
"Yeah…" Sora echoed.
Before Haruya could continue, Laila appeared from behind again, "That would be nice."
Imitating Haruya's tone, Laila pointed to the corridor behind her, "But before that, don't we need to take a bath? You must be sweating a lot now, right?"
"That's true…" Haruya had no reason to object.
As soon as Haruya finished speaking, Laila grabbed his hand and 'ran' toward the room, "Let's take a bath!!!!"
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Surprised, a notification of [Mission Complete] appeared in Haruya's mind.
But more importantly, saving a Checkpoint now was crucial.
"Well, let's take a bath first." That was Haruya's answer…
<< Checkpoint: Save >>
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[Chlammy Zell...]
[Fiel Nirvalen...]